THE
AGONY CAN BE SEEN HERE ESPECIALLY ON THE FACE OF MARCVS AS THE THREE OF US
COMPLETE THE '94
MARATHON IN RECORD
TIME

[5 Hours
26 mins 23 secs] CARRYING OUR HEAVY EQUIPMENT.

CAIVS CARRIES A STANDARD PROCLAIMING
THE VIRTUES OF PURE WATER - AS USED BY THE RUNNERS.

THIS
WAS ONE OF THREE MARATHONS THAT WE HAVE TAKEN PART IN OVER THE PRECEEDING
YEARS... AND WE LEARNT QUITE A LOT FROM MARCHING IN ROMAN EQUIPMENT.

THE WEAR ON CALIGAE
STUDS, THE RESTRICTIONS OF THE ARMOUR, THE WEAR OF THE SHIELDS RUBBING AGAINST
THE BODY ARMOUR ETC...MUCH OF IT VERY INTERESTING TO ARCHAEOLOGISTS.

WHAT
I LEARNTTHOUGH...
IS NEVER TO DO IT AGAIN!!!

Four day march... the length
of Hadrian's Wall... 72 miles for a good cause.

16th-19th March 2002.

The cult of
MITHRAS

(GOD
OF LIGHT) SPREAD FROM ASIA MINOR INTO THE ROMAN ARMY FROM ABOUT 68BC, ACCORDING
TO PLUTARCH.

SHRINES TO MITHRAS
HAVE BEEN FOUND WHEREVER THE ROMAN LEGIONS WENT... A TEMPLE OF MITHRAS WITH
SOME BEAUTIFUL STATUARY ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE CULT WAS EXCAVATED IN LONDON IN
1953, AND IS PRESERVED THERE. MITHRAS IS PRESENTED AS A BEAUTIFUL YOUTH DRIVING
A KNIFE INTO THE NECK OF A BULL WHICH AT THE SAME TIME IS BEING BITTEN BY
A SCORPION , A DOG AND A CRAB.... ILLUSTRATIVE OF SOME COSMIC MYTH.
THE SHIELD ON LEFT, MADE AND DESIGNED BY US, IS BASED ON INFORMATION FROM
KNOWN SOURCES AND INFLUENCED BY EXISTING STATUES OF THE YOUNG SUN
GOD.

Mithras was
the main savior god of Mithraism,
a Hellenistic mystery religion of male initiates that developed in the Eastern
Mediterranean in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. It was practiced in the Roman
Empire from the 1st century BC to the 5th century AD. The Romanized Greek
Plutarch states that in 67 BC a large band of pirates in Cilicia (on the southeast
coast of Anatolia} were practicing "secret rites" of Mithras.Mithras
is the Greek masculine form of Mitra... the Persian god who was the mediator
between Ahura Mazda and the earth, the guarantor of human contracts, although
in Mithraism much was added to the original elements of Mithra. Some of the
attributes of the Roman Mithras could have been taken from other Eastern cults.
The Mithraist emphasis on astrology suggests syncretism with star-oriented
Mesopotamian. At least some of the beliefs may have already been altered by
the time the cult was adopted in the West, when Mithraism was introduced by
Roman legions at Dura-Europos after 168 CE.

The
mythology
surrounding Mithras is not easily put together; apparently the cult did not
depend on the interpretation of divinely-inspired revealed texts, and the
textual references are mainly those of Christians, who mention Mithras to
deplore him, as well neo-Platonists who interpreted Mithraic symbols within
their own world schemes.